Catherine of Austria - Historical Figures

She was the posthumous daughter of Philip el Hermoso and the only one who lived together with her mother, the Queen Joan, who was shut in the Royal Palace in Tordesillas for 16 years.

She was born in Torquemada in 1507. The labour caught her there when she carried her husband's corpse from Burgos to Granada.

In 1509, she arrives at Tordesillas where she will live until her brother, the king Charles I, decides her to be taken to the court of Valladolid (1518). As Joan could not bear his absence, she will return after three days.

Her brother Charles agrees her marriage with the king of Portugal John III. He left Tordesillas in 1525 setting a course for this country. She exerted a great influence on her husband, with whom she had nine children, although only two of them became of age, Mª Manuela and her son the Prince John who died in 1554.

When her husband, John III, died in 1557 she was appointed regent of the Portuguese kingdom during the time her grandson, Sebastián, was under age (1557-1562).

She died in 1578, a few moths after his grandson, Sebastián, disappeared.